Sunday, July 04, 2010

Turtle hurdles

Sigh, look at my once beautiful turtle that now looks sickly. Oh the horror, can you see how badly her shell has deteriorated?! I stand helpless. All I do is wash her cage every two days and feed her once or twice a day. I no longer let her run loose in my room or else she'll disappear again and the next time it happens, she's not gonna make it.

After coming back from church yesterday, I was shocked to see her on the bridge. She usually hides underneath it, turtles enjoy being in the water most of the time. I thought she was dead so I started shouting hysterically," LUCY?! LUCY?! LUCY?!" It looked like she vomited and crawled to the top and died. I just cleaned her cage in the morning and it was unusual to see this much excrement.

It all happened after she ran away for a month. Imagine a month without "clean" water (Malaysia's tap water isn't that clean) and food. Lucy's malnutrition definitely took a toll on her shell.

I first noticed it when I brought her to work one day. It was after the 8th of June, which I self-declared it to be Bring Your Pet To Work Day. Jolene, a very sweet church-mate of mine, brought her sugar gliders to my workplace that day. Fine, it doesn't count for her since she wasn't a staff.

It wasn't that bad then. Just a patch of dry shell and a month later, the whole shell looks like it's rotting. What to do?

Victoria told me to give her some sunlight and feed her vegetables. I've relocated her beside my window pane and I've yet to go grocery shopping for some lettuce and tomatoes. Oh please don't die on me Lucy!